Improving practice through involvement in action research

Background: This article presents an action research project as a case study to highlight the attributes of this approach in evaluating a health-care intervention, for the purpose of improving it. The action research was undertaken with a group of health-care professionals who wanted to improve a preoperative education programme for patients awaiting a total hip replacement.

Content: Descriptive detail is provided on the process and justification for action research in this context. The findings and discussion focus on the author's reflections on using action research, rather than the findings in respect of preoperative education. Integral to the action research was the involvement of the health-care professionals. Challenges arose during the research planning which had the potential to undermine the research purpose, but these were addressed to ensure the healthcare professionals were fully involved. Being involved in the action research enabled the health-care professionals to work together for a collective goal of improving their service. Significantly, the action research facilitated their reflections as a means of evaluating and improving their practice.

Conclusions: Many improvements were made as a result of the action research. These improvements were seen to have three dimensions: improvement in the health-care professionals' theoretical understanding, improvement in their own teaching practices, and improvement in their service outcomes.